BV  5082  . A4 5  1923 
Addison,  Charles  Morris, 
1856-1947 . 

What  is  mysticism? 


WHAT  IS  MYSTICISM  ? 


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TORONTO 


WHAT  IS  MYSTICISM? 


A  STUDY  OF  MAN’S  SEARCH  FOR 


<>' 


OCT  19  1923 


A 


BY  THE 


3&0S ICAL 


Rev.  CHARLES  MORRIS  ADDISON,  D.D. 


Nrm  Unrk 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
All  rights  reserved 

1923 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Copyright,  1923. 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  printed.  Published  Aptil,  1923. 


“Mysticism  has  been  the  ferment  of  the  faiths, 
the  forerunner  of  spiritual  liberty,  the  inaccessible 
refuge  of  the  nobler  heretics,  the  inspirer,  through 
poetry,  of  countless  youth  who  know  no  meta¬ 
physics,  the  teacher,  through  the  devotional  books, 
of  the  despairing,  the  comforter  of  those  who  are 
weary  of  finitude.” 

JoSIAH  ROYCE. 


“The  Church  can  never  get  rid  of  the  mystic 
spirit,  nor  should  she  attempt  to  do  so,  for  it  is 
in  fact  her  life.  It  is  another  name  for  conscience, 
for  freedom,  for  the  right  of  the  individual  soul, 
for  the  grace  and  privilege  of  direct  access  to  the 
Redeemer,  for  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
in  the  heart.” 


Charles  Bigg. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/whatismysticismsOOaddi 


•> 


WHAT  IS  MYSTICISM? 

i. 

A  DIFFICULT  QUESTION 

It  is  useless  to  try  to  define  Mysticism.  Like 
all  deep  and  divine  experiences  it  defies  definition. 
One  cannot  define  Love,  nor  prove  God  by  a  syl¬ 
logism.  But  both  love  and  God  may  be  felt,  ex¬ 
perienced  in  our  personal  lives  and  the  way  to 
experience  them  may  be  explained.  And  when 
once  we  have  discovered  them,  then  we  know  and 
definition  and  proof  are  not  needed. 

Let  us  see,  if  we  can  arrive  at  an  understanding 
of  this  much-misunderstood  subject,  not  by  defin¬ 
ing  it  as  a  thing ,  but  by  describing  it  as  a  life. 

Because  Mysticism  is  not  a  religion  but  a 
method  and  a  spirit,  which  is  common  to  all  re¬ 
ligions.  It  is  one  of  the  forms  by  which  man’s 

incurably  religious  nature  has  always  tried  to  ex- 

1 


2 


What  is  Mysticism? 


press  and  to  satisfy  itself.  So  it  can  be  traced  in 
various  degrees  in  almost  every  religion.  It  is 
not  confined  to  Christianity.  It  is  to  be  found  in 
India  and  Persia,  in  Buddhism  and  Mohammeda¬ 
nism  and  is  the  same  in  all.  Being  only  a  method 
of  attaining  knowledge  of,  and  union  with,  God,  it 
varies  only  in  the  kind  of  God  sought.  But  it  is 
natural  to  Christians  to  feel  that  their  Mysticism 
is  the  highest  and  best,  the  most  interesting  and 
helpful,  because  theirs  is  the  seeking  of  the  God 
revealed  to  us  by  and  in  Jesus  Christ.  On  this 
conviction  we  shall  proceed. 

If  Religion  presupposes  the  longing  of  the 
human  soul  for  God, — some  God,  some  Higher 
Power,  whoever  He  or  It  may  be — then  men  have 
always  sought  out  ways  by  which  to  satisfy  this 
longing,  to  find  the  unknown  God  and  to  be  at 
peace  with  Him.  As  St.  Augustine  expresses  it, 
the  human  heart  is  restless  and  cannot  find  rest 
until  it  rests  in  God.  And  Mysticism  is  only  one 
of  the  ways  men  have  discovered  and  developed 
by  which  to  find  God  and  satisfy  this  longing. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


3 


II. 

ITS  PLACE  IN  RELIGION 

In  order  to  place  Mysticism  and  understand  it 
better  it  will  be  well  to  look  at  these  other  ways 
first.  For  they,  like  Mysticism  have  always  been 
employed  in  every  Religion  and  are  used  today  in 
differing  proportions  by  every  section  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church.  It  would  be  an  interesting  study 
to  distinguish  each  part  of  the  Church  by  noting 
the  predominance  in  it  of  one  or  more  of  these 
methods. 

Speaking  generally  there  are  four  ways  by 
which  men  try  to  express  their  religious  nature — 
their  desire  to  know  and  serve  God. 

First,  the  Institutional,  by  membership  in  some 
clan,  or  cult,  or  church,  claiming  His  authority, 
claiming  to  be  the  only  avenue  of  approach,  using 
elaborate  ritual,  which  when  properly  performed 
draws  the  God  down  or  lifts  up  the  worshipper  to 
Him.  The  connection  with  God  thus  made  is 
largely  mechanical,  if  not  physical.  Simply  by 
being  in  the  organization  one  is  connected  with 
God  and  may  feel  safe. 


4 


What  is  Mysticism? 


Secondly y  there  is  the  Intellectual  approach — 
the  attempt  to  draw  near  to  God  by  the  use  of  Rea¬ 
son,  re]ying  for  salvation  on  the  correctness  of 
beliefs  about  God  and  framing  these  beliefs  accur¬ 
ately  in  carefully  drawn  Creeds.  God  is  thought 
of  as  “the  great  Intellectual  Purist”  and  we  must 
worship  Him  in  truth,  which  is  a  matter  of  mental 
attitude.  We  connect  with  God  through  a  chain 
of  logical  processes. 

Thirdlyy  there  is  the  way  of  the  Will,  the  at¬ 
tainment  of  salvation  as  well  as  of  knowledge  by 
subjecting  our  wills  to  God’s  Will  in  a  life  of 
obedience  and  service.  (“If  any  man  willeth  to 
to  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching”) 
This  is  the  ethical  approach. 

And  then  lastly ,  there  is  the  way  called  Mysti¬ 
cism,  another  method,  more  inward  and  personal, 
called  by  Schure,  “The  Art  of  finding  God  in  one’s 
self,”  and  by  Rufus  Jones,  “that  type  of  religion 
which  puts  the  emphasis  on  immediate  awareness 
of  relation  with  God,  on  direct  and  intimate  con¬ 
sciousness  of  the  divine  Presence.”1 

This  method  of  approach  to  God  is,  of  course, 

1  Rufus  M.  Jones:  Studies  in  Mystical  Religion,  p.  xv. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


5 


seen  predominantly  in  the  Friends,  or  Quakers, 
though,  like  all  the  rest,  it  is  found  in  all  religions, 
as  we  have  said,  and  in  all  varieties  of  Christian 
Churches. 

Now  it  would  seem  that  all  these  four  ways, 
and  perhaps  others,  were  necessary  to  the  complete 
expression  of  men’s  feeling  after  God,  if  haply 
they  may  find  Him,  as  if  all  were  methods  by 
which  God  means  to  reach  us  or  to  have  us  reach 
Him. 

But  the  claim  is  made,  not  only  by  the  Mystics 
themselves,  but  by  the  critics,  that  this  last  way 
really  comes  first  and  underlies  all  the  others. 
Not  only  the  careful  student  but  the  Mystics 
themselves  are  glad  to  acknowledge  the  value  of 
the  other  ways,  and  to  accept  their  help  and  yet 
they  claim  that  their  way  supplies  personal  loyalty 
to  churchmanship  and  emotion  to  worship  and 
data  for  the  reason  to  work  on  and  energy  to  the 
will  and  absolute  inner  certainty  to  all. 

And  further  they  claim  that  all  men  are  not 
touched  by  an  elaborate  ritual,  nor  inspired  by  the 
thought  of  their  common  fellowship  and  safety  in 
a  great  Catholic  Church,  though  most  of  them 


6  What  is  Mysticism ? 

have  remained  loyal  members  of  their  respective 
churches. 

And  they  claim  that  not  all  men  can  reason  log¬ 
ically  and  theologically  with  sufficient  accuracy  to 
be  sure  of  salvation  that  way.  They  are  rather 
sceptical  of  the  value  of  ratiocination  and  are  too 
sure  of  God  to  need  any  logical  proof  of  His  exis¬ 
tence,  thinking  of  Him  as  Love  and  not  as  the 
subject  of  Logic. 

And  they  claim  also  that  the  Ethical  movement 
with  all  its  desire  to  obey  God’s  will,  fails  to  do 
so  without  some  inner  aid 5  that  mere  obedience  is 
an  impossibility  without  emotional  content  and 
personal  loving  devotion.  Yet  they  themselves 
are  intensely  practical  and  most  of  them  very  use¬ 
ful  members  of  society. 

So  while  not  disparaging  these  other  methods, 
thinking  them  good  for  some  men  always  and  for 
all  men  sometimes,  they  make  the  final  claim  that 
Mysticism,  in  some  form,  is  universal  and  univer- 
•  sally  necessary.  All  of  us,  if  we  want  God,  can 
feel  God  touch  our  hearts  and  have  personal  com¬ 
munication  with  him.  This  is  what  the  defini¬ 
tions  we  have  given  mean. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


7 


III. 

THE  DESIRE  FOR  GOD 

All  men  want  God.  Religion,  on  its  human 
side,  is  man’s  effort  to  find  God.  There  is  a 
sense  of  relationship,  incomplete  and  unsatisfac¬ 
tory  as  yet,  and  we  try  to  satisfy  our  incomplete¬ 
ness.  The  Mystic  tells  us  that  this  satisfaction 
comes  most  completely,  not  by  belonging  to  a 
Society,  however  great,  not  by  going  through  a 
form  of  worship  however  beautiful;  not  by  be¬ 
lieving  a  dogma  however  true,  but  by  feeling  an 
inward  and  personal  and  intimate  touch  of  God 
upon  our  soul.  Because  all  our  knowledge  comes 
from  the  sense  of  touch,  on  eye  or  ear,  and  as  God 
is  Spirit  and  only  Spirit  with  spirit  can  meet,  un¬ 
less  God  “touched  our  hearts,”  as  we  say,  unless 
we  can  find  and  feel  Him  within  ourselves ,  we 
cannot  really  have  any  first-hand  knowledge  of 
Him,  only  some  knowledge  of  things  about  Him. 

So  that  without  really  defining  it  we  have  now 
heard  the  Mystics  claim  that  their  way  is  pre¬ 
eminent  over  all  other  ways  of  finding  God,  that 
it  is  universal,  for  all  men  follow  it  in  varying 


8  What  is  Mysticism? 

degree  and  that  all  men  actually  use  it  to  a  cer¬ 
tain  extent. 

What  differentiates  a  Mystic  from  other  men  is 
only  this:  that  he  wants  God  more  and  takes  more 
pains  to  find  Him. 

For  the  one  fact  that  stares  us  in  the  face  as  we 
study  the  lives  of  the  Mystics  is  that  they  all  have 
a  deep  and  over-mastering  desire  to  attain  to  the 
vision  of  God  and  to  become  united  with  Him. 
This,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  root  of  all  religion. 
The  Mystic  is  only  more  intensely  religious.  He 
differs  from  the  ordinary  religious  man,  not  in 
kind  but  in  degree.  That  longing  for  God  which 
is  in  us  all,  which  makes  us  all  religious  to  a  cer¬ 
tain  extent,  is  with  so  many  of  us,  just  one  of 
life’s  aims,  side  by  side  with  many  others,  or  some¬ 
thing  to  be  postponed  to  a  more  convenient  season. 
With  the  Mystic  it  is  his  one  ever-present,  over¬ 
mastering  impulse.  It  is  this  impulse  which  must 
be  clearly  understood  and  even  felt  in  some  degree 
before  we  can  begin  to  study  Mysticism.  All  fol¬ 
lows  from  this.  It  is  the  ground  of  all  mysti¬ 
cism  in  whatever  religion  we  find  it.  It  varies, 
as  we  have  said,  only  in  the  kind  of  God  with 


9 


What  is  Mysticism? 

whom  union  is  sought.  In  the  Sufi,  it  is  the  God 
of  Mohammed,  in  the  Buddhist  it  may  be  Nir¬ 
vana  or  Dharmakaya  with  Plotinus  it  is  a  vague 
Abyss,  while  with  St.  Francis  it  is  God  person¬ 
alized  in  Jesus  Christ.  With  some  who  are 
“naturally  religious,”  as  we  say,  this  longing 
comes  from  early  childhood  5  others  have  led  very 
worldly,  even  wicked  lives  and  been  suddenly 
touched  by  God’s  finger  and  “converted.”  How¬ 
ever  it  comes  it  is  the  same  in  all.  Many  circum¬ 
stances  may  combine  to  foster  and  intensify  this 
longing.  The  world  may  shock  by  its  wicked¬ 
ness  and  drive  the  pure  soul  in  horror  towards 
God.  Pestilence  and  famine  and  earthquake  and 
war  may  lead  some  to  “seek  a  better  country  j”  or 
it  may  be  a  sense  of  their  own  unworthiness  and 
need  for  forgiveness.  Whatever  it  may  be  and 
however  it  comes  about,  this  yearning  after  God 
persists  and  becomes  insistent  and  dominates  and 
controls  the  Mystic.  He  cannot  escape  its 
urgency.  It  becomes  not  only  a  “dominant  de¬ 
sire”  but  a  domineering  one.  It  is  more  than  hav¬ 
ing  a  preference  for  God,  it  is  having  a  passion 
for  God. 


IO 


What  is  Mysticism? 

Now  life  is  always  a  thing  of  one  aim  and  every 
man’s  life  is  determined  by  its  one  supreme  desire. 
Whatever  a  man  most  cares  for,  guides  and  con¬ 
trols  and  moulds  him.  As  we  look  at  the  men 
and  women  called  Mystics,  we  find  this  fact  true 
of  all  of  them.  However  they  may  differ  in 
other  respects,  (and  they  are  a  very  varied  tribe) 
they  all  so  earnestly  desire  to  get  at  God,  so  pas¬ 
sionately  seek  His  kingdom  first,  that  really  noth¬ 
ing  else  matters. 

So  the  Mystic  is  set  apart  from  other  religious 
people  in  the  first  place  by  the  intensity  of  this 
longing.  It  is  only  a  matter  of  degree.  For 
all  of  us  have  a  desire  for  goodness  and  for  God, 
only  with  some  of  us  it  is  secondary  and  fitful  and 
feeble.  With  the  Mystic  it  is  supreme  and  con¬ 
stant  and  overpowering.  He  has  made  his  choice. 
It  is  God,  or  nothing,  or  rather  it  is  God  and  with 
Him  every  thing  else. 

This  statement  hardly  requires  proof.  The 
psalmist  cries  aAs  the  hart  panteth  after  the 
water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O 
God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living 


What  is  Mysticism ?  n 

God.  When  shall  I  come  and  appear  before 
God?”1 

The  Mystics’  writings  are  full  of  the  same  long¬ 
ing.  That  great  poet  of  the  Mystics,  Ruysbroek 
says,  “Here  there  begins  an  eternal  hunger  which 
shall  never  be  satisfied.  It  is  the  yearning  and  in¬ 
ward  aspiration  of  our  faculty  of  love  and  our 
created  spirit  towards  an  uncreated  Good.  And 
as  the  spirit  desires  joy  and  is  invited  and  con¬ 
strained  by  God  to  partake  of  it,  it  is  always  long¬ 
ing  to  realize  joy.  Behold  then  the  beginning  of 
an  eternal  aspiration  and  of  eternal  efforts  while 
our  impotence  is  likewise  eternal.  These  are  the 
poorest  of  all  men;  for  they  are  eager  and  greedy 
and  they  can  never  be  satisfied.”2  And  the  old 
English  Mystic,  Richard  Rolle,  also  a  poet,  writes 
in  the  same  vein,  “O  sweet  Jesu,  I  bind  thy  love 
in  me  with  a  knot  unable  to  be  loosed,  seeking  the 
treasure  that  I  desire  and  longing  I  find,  because 
I  cease  not  to  thirst  for  thee.”3 

In  the  quaintest  and  yet  most  striking  simile, 
St.  Catherine  of  Siena  describes  her  yearning  up- 

1  Psalm  42:  1,  2  and  cf.  Psalm  63:  1,  2. 

2  Maeterlinck :  Ruysbroek  and  the  Mystics,  p.  147. 

3  Rolle :  The  Fire  of  Love,  p.  165. 


12 


What  is  Mysticism? 


wards  for  God.  She  declares  “I  can  no  longer 
manage  to  live  on  in  this  life,  because  I  feel  as 
though  I  were  in  it  like  a  cork  under  water.”4 5 

While  still  more  beautifully  Mother  Julian  of 
Norwich  describes  the  longing  which  is  having, 
and  the  having  which  longs  for  more. 

“For  I  saw  Him  and  sought  Him  3  for  we  be 
now  so  blind  and  so  unwise  that  we  can  never  seek 
God  until  what  time  that  He  of  His  goodness 
showeth  Him  to  us.  And  when  we  see  aught  of 
Him  graciously,  then  are  we  stirred  by  the  same 
grace  to  seek  with  great  desire  to  see  Him  more 
blessedfully.  And  thus  I  saw  Him  and  sought 
Him,  I  had  Him  and  wanted  Him,  and  this  is  and 
should  be  our  common  working  in  this  life,  as  to 
my  sight.”'’ 

In  his  earliest  poem,  Robert  Browning,  also  a 
Mystic,  tells  us: — 

“I  have  always  had  one  lode-star ;  now 

As  I  look  back,  I  see  that  I  have  halted 

Or  hastened  as  I  looked  towards  that  star — 

A  need,  a  trust,  a  yearning  after  God.”6 

4  Quoted  in  Von  Hiigel :  The  Mystical  Element  in  Religion,  Vol. 
I,  page  275. 

5  Mother  Julian:  Revelations  of  Divine  Love,  p.  28. 

6  Browning :  Pauline. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


13 


This  then,  is  the  first  mark  which  distinguishes 
a  Mystic.  And  the  obvious  thing  to  be  said  about 
it  is  that  it  is  what  all  of  us  know  we  ought  to  feel 
and  to  be.  It  is  nothing  esoteric,  nothing  myster¬ 
ious.  It  is  only  what  every  “professing  Chris¬ 
tian”  professes  to  be  his  duty — to  “seek  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness” — “to  for¬ 
sake  all  and  follow,”  Christ. 

IV. 

ITS  ASSUMPTIONS 

What  next  differentiates  the  Mystic  from  the 
rest  of  us  is  the  definiteness  of  his  plan — his  adop¬ 
tion  of  a  certain  means  to  attain  his  end.  There 
is  a  Mystic  Way,  as  it  is  called,  a  method  to  be  pur¬ 
sued,  an  Art  to  be  practiced.  We  are  studying 
a  Life, — vivid,  earnest,  practical  and  efficient,  not 
a  cold  Science.  It  has  its  laws  and  rules,  but  it 
uses  them  for  purposes  of  growth,  not  study.  It 
is  the  actual  life  of  the  plant  itself,  not  the  science 
of  Botany.  But  before  we  come  to  look  at  the 
Way,  there  are  two  of  its  assumptions  which  we 
must  consider. 


14  What  is  Mysticism ? 

Of  course  it  assumes  God,  just  as  Jesus  Christ 
did.  God  is  not  to  be  proved,  only  sought  and 
experienced.  And  the  natural  question  arises 
where  is  God  to  be  sought  and  where  may  He  be 
found?  Is  He  far  above,  enthroned  in  the 
Empyrean?  or  is  He  far  behind,  only  to  be  read 
of  in  a  Book?  Neither.  The  Mystics  remember 
that  the  Revealer  said  the  Kingdom  of  God  was 
within  and  so  the  Ruler  must  be  there,  too.  One 
of  the  uncanonical  sayings  of  Christ  is  very  strik¬ 
ing.  He  is  said  to  have  said  “Verily,  the  King¬ 
dom  of  God  is  within  you  and  whosoever  knoweth 
himself  shall  find  it.”  It  is  in  the  depths  of  our 
own  nature  that  we  find  God.  As  Santa  Teresa 
says: — “You  need  not  go  to  heaven  to  see  God,  or 
to  regale  yourself  with  God.  Nor  need  you  speak 
loud,  as  if  He  were  far  away.  Nor  need  you 
cry  for  wings  like  a  dove  so  as  to  fly  to  Him.  Set¬ 
tle  yourself  in  solitude,  and  you  will  come  upon 
God  in  yourself.  And  then  entreat  Him  as  your 
Father  and  relate  to  him  your  troubles.  Those 
who  can  in  this  manner  shut  themselves  up  in  the 
little  heaven  of  their  own  hearts,  where  He  dwells 
who  made  heaven  and  earth,  let  them  be  sure  that 


What  is  Mysticism? 


1 5 


they  walk  in  the  most  excellent  way:  they  lay  their 
pipe  right  up  to  the  fountain.”1 

Mother  Julian  writes  “For  God  is  never  out  of 
the  soul  in  which  He  dwelleth  blissfully  with¬ 
out  end.”2 

One  of  the  early  Church  Fathers,  Tertullian, 
asserts  “To  mount  to  God  is  to  enter  into  one’s 
self,  for  he  who  inwardly  entereth  and  intimately 
penetrateth  into  himself,  gets  above  and  beyond 
himself  and  surely  mounts  up  to  God.” 

And  this  is  repeated  by  Richard  of  St.  Victor, 
in  the  middle  ages,  when  he  says:  “If  thou  wishest 
to  search  out  the  deep  things  of  God,  search  out 
the  depths  of  thine  own  spirit.”2 

As  Dr.  Rufus  M.  Jones  says,  “It  has  been  the 
contention  of  Mystics  in  all  ages  that  God  him¬ 
self  is  the  ground  of  the  Soul,  and  in  the  depths 
of  their  being  all  men  partake  of  one  central  divine 
Life.”4 

This  is  the  very  commonplace  of  Mysticism.  It 

1  Whyte:  Santa  Teresa,  page  49. 

2  Revelations  of  Divine  Love,  page  133. 

3  Richard  of  St.  Victor:  Benjamin  Minor  LXXV. 

4  Jones:  Studies  in  Mystical  Religion,  p.  xxxii. 


1 6  What  is  Mysticism ? 

ratifies  Schure’s  definition  that  it  is  “the  Art  of 
finding  God  in  one’s  self.” 

They,  therefore,  waste  no  time  in  looking  for 
God  through  telescope  or  microscope,  they  do  not 
attempt  to  come  near  Him  or  care  to  prove  His 
existence  by  logical  processes.  They  want  Him, 
— a  close  and  personal  and  inward  consciousness 
of  His  actual  presence.  They  know  He  is  act¬ 
ually  within  them. 

This  assumption  comes  from  their  knowledge 
of  their  real  relationship  to  Him.  They  feel 
“capable”  of  God,  because  they  have  His  nature 
and  are  His  children  in  a  real  and  not  a  legal 
sense.  They  feel  that  however  they  may  have 
defaced  His  image  they  still  bear  it  5  that  in  their 
inmost  selves  there  is  a  “spark,”  a  “point,”  where 
they  can  connect  with  the  source  of  their  life. 
We  see  now  what  is  meant  by  the  definition  of 
Mysticism  as  the  “Art  of  finding  God  in  one’s 
self.”  The  Mystic  believes  he  can  do  so.  This 
is  the  ground  of  His  hope  and  the  seat  of  his 
activity.  And  he  believes  more.  He  has  a  still 
greater  assurance  of  success.  He  assumes,  not 
only  that  he  and  God  belong  together,  by  an 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


17 


inalienable  right,  that  his  longing  is  as  justifiable 
as  that  of  the  long-lost  son  for  his  father’s  home, 
but  that  this  longing  is  shared  by  God  himself. 
He  feels  that  God  is  seeking  him  even  more  ear¬ 
nestly  than  he  seeks  God.  He  knows  that  if  he, 
in  the  far  country,  arises  and  goes  home,  his  Father 
will  run  to  meet  him,  even  while  he  is  afar  off. 
Because  the  search  is  mutual,  the  finding  is  sure. 
In  this  assumption  all  Mystics  agree.  There  is 
nothing  mysterious  here.  It  seems  to  be  what  is 
known  among  Christians  as  the  Gospel.  The 
only  startling  fact  is  that  the  Mystic  believes  and 
acts  on  it! 


V. 

THE  MYSTIC  WAY 

We  come  then  to  the  Mystic’s  Method  of  find¬ 
ing  God.  As  we  have  seen,  Mysticism  is  an  Art. 
It  is  not  a  Science  or  a  theory.  It  rests  on  certain 
facts  and  laws,  even  as  Music  and  Architecture, 
but  like  these  it  must  be  practised  to  be  of  any 
use.  It  uses  means,  sometimes,  as  in  other  Arts, 
very  dull  and  tiresome,  like  scales  to  the  pianist. 


1 8  What  is  Mysticism ? 

The  passion  for  the  end  ensures  faithfulness  in 
the  use  of  the  means  and  glorifies  them.  The 
ordinary  Christian  speaks  of  the  necessity  of  “the 
Means  of  Grace,”  as  he  calls  them,  but  his  use  of 
them  is  very  objectless,  the  end  is  not  always  in 
sight,  nor  is  his  worship,  his  reading,  his  praying 
very  intelligent  or  persistent.  Now  whatever  men 
may  say,  our  Mystics  are  very  practical  people. 
They  may  philosophize  and  attempt  to  explain 
themselves  in  very  misty  symbols ;  they  may  have 
strange  visions  and  trances;  they  may  spend  many 
hours  in  silent  and  apparently  profitless  medita¬ 
tion  but  they  know  what  they  are  about  and  are 
never  led  away  from  their  one  pursuit.  This  is 
surely  the  mark  of  a  practical  man  even  in  the 
world’s  eyes.  For  a  man  of  one  supreme  aim 
definitely  followed  is  generally  practical.  So 
these  Mystics  set  about  gaining  their  end  with  the 
determination  to  use  the  best  means  and  to  use 
them  faithfully.  Without  consultation  among 
themselves  and  without  the  use  of  any  text-book 
(save  the  Bible),  they  have  arrived  at  a  pretty 
general  consensus  as  to  what  is  the  best  way  and 
so  they  use  it  to  reach  union  with  God,  just  as  the 


What  is  Mysticism ?  19 

violinist  knows  what  he  must  do,  patiently  and 
persistently  to  attain  to  virtuosity. 

VI. 

REPENTANCE 

As  we  study  the  Mystic  Way,  it  ought  to  have 
a  strangely  familiar  look  to  well-informed  Chris¬ 
tians.  It  begins  with  Repentance.  Their  sin 
separates  them  from  God.  They  are  unfit  for 
the  sight  of  Him.  Only  the  pure  in  heart  can  see 
God.  So  they,  as  all  Christians,  must  repent, 
see  themselves  as  they  are,  change  their  minds  and 
endeavor  to  lead  a  new  life.  And  the  point  to 
be  noted  here  is  that  they  regard  sin,  not  as  some¬ 
thing  deserving  punishment  and  repentance  as  a 
means  of  escaping  punishment.  They  are  very 
little  concerned  with  the  question  of  their  own  sal¬ 
vation.  As  has  been  said,  everything  is  swallowed 
up  in  the  desire  to  see  God  and  be  at  one  with 
Him.  And  so  sin  is  regarded  as  a  veil,  which 
hides  God,  as  an  obstacle  in  the  way  toward  Him, 
something  to  be  swept  away  to  free  their  progress. 

An  old  English  mystical  work  “The  Cell  of 
Self-Knowledge”  warns  us  thus: — “And  wete 


20 


What  is  Mysticism? 


thou  well  that  he  that  desireth  to  see  God,  him 
behoveth  to  cleanse  his  soul ;  the  which  is  as  a  mir¬ 
ror  in  which  all  things  are  clearly  seen  when  it  is 
clean,  and  when  the  mirror  is  foul,  then  may  not 
thou  see  nothing  clearly  within  j  and  right  so  it  is 
of  thy  soul  when  it  is  foul,  neither  thou  knowest 
thyself  nor  God.”1 

Again  we  are  told  in  one  of  the  greatest  of  mys¬ 
tical  writings  j  aNow  be  assured  that  no  one  can  be 
enlightened  unless  he  be  first  cleansed  or  purified 
and  stripped.”2 

And  so  with  them,  as  not  with  us,  there  is  an 
intensity  in  their  repentance  and  renunciation 
which  sometimes  jars  on  our  susceptibilities.  Just 
in  proportion  as  they  intensely  long,  so  much  the 
fiercer  is  their  repudiation  of  the  sin  which  hinders 
them.  Thus  they  not  only  turn  in  horror  from  the 
sins  they  have  committed  and  which  have  made 
made  them  what  they  are,  they  are  also  in  great 
terror  of  the  sins  they  may  yet  commit.  They 
must  do  all  in  their  power  to  subdue  their  lusts, 
their  temper,  their  selfishness. 

1  The  Cell  of  Self-Knowledge,  p.  30. 

2  Theologia  Germanica,  p.  44  and  cf.  Suso,  Eternal  Wisdom, 
p.  132  and  Life  of  the  Blessed  Henry  Suso,  p.  8. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


21 


It  is  here  we  begin  to  see,  at  the  very  outset,  in 
many  cases,  how  the  over-mastering  passion  for 
God,  in  its  hatred  of  sin  causes,  by  its  very  eager¬ 
ness,  the  exaggeration  we  call  Asceticism.  That  is 
not  the  best  name  for  it,  because  asceticism  is  the 
desire  to  please  God  by  some  self-denial,  some 
self-mutilation.  It  considers  the  suffering  as  of 
some  value  in  itself,  the  more  for  being  self-in¬ 
flicted.  This  the  Mystic  never  does.  He  is 
only  desperately  in  earnest.  Little  sins  we  pass  over 
lightly  bulk  very  large  to  him.  Everything  that 
stands  in  his  way,  however  small  it  may  be,  must 
be  put  away.  And  so  in  his  eagerness  to  get  at 
God,  he  often  strips  himself  of  more  than  is  need¬ 
ful.  In  his  shame  for  sins  past  and  in  his  dread 
of  more  sinning  he  inflicts  upon  his  body  too  severe 
a  punishment — not  we  must  remember,  to  placate 
God  but  to  further  his  progress  to  God.  The 
difference  between  him  and  us  today  we  may  meas¬ 
ure  when  we  compare  Heinrich  Suso  cutting  into 
his  flesh  with  a  stylus  over  his  heart  the  word 
JESU  in  letters  an  inch  high,  and  some  of  us  who 
wear  a  pectoral  cross  of  gold  inlaid  with  jewels. 
Both  are  symbols  and  both  may  be  worn  with  the 


22 


What  is  Mysticism? 


same  idea,  yet  while  it  hurt  him  more,  Suso  wore 
his  with  a  joy  deeper  than  ours. 

And  yet  it  was  not  in  accordance  with  God’s 
will  as  he  learned  afterwards.  Just  as  St.  Fran¬ 
cis  mauled  and  beat  his  body,  “Brother  Ass”  as  he 
called  it,  more  than  his  tender  heart  would  ever 
let  him  hurt  a  beast,  just  as  Suso  subjected  him¬ 
self  to  terrible  and  almost  incredible  austerities, 
so  they  both  learned,  the  one  too  late,  the  other 
just  in  time,  that  such  practices,  so  extreme  and 
long-continued,  only  weaken  the  soul  along  with 
the  body. 

But  while  their  means  were  wrong,  their  end 
was  good.  And  it  would  seem  by  their  results  as 
if  God  rewarded  their  spirit  and  overlooked  their 
mistake — as  if  He  preferred,  after  all,  this 
extreme  method  of  reaching  their  end  to  the  one 
most  men  take  of  the  easy  life  and  the  pampered 
appetite. 

At  any  rate  in  this  first  step  of  the  Mystic  Way, 
we  can  see  in  these  strange  and  disgusting  exag¬ 
gerations,  a  still  further  sign,  if  one  were  needed, 
of  the  desperate  eagerness  to  find  God.  Those 


What  is  Mysticism ?  23 

who  have  tried  this  path  of  pain  tell  us  it  is 
very  rewarding. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Mystic’s  idea  of  renunci¬ 
ation,  his  ascetic  ideal  was  like  that  of  the  devoted 
mother,  who  willingly  endures  hardships,  of  long- 
continued  labor  and  loss  of  sleep  in  caring  for  a 
sick  child,  or  like  that  of  Peary  or  Scott  in  their 
search  for  the  Poles.  The  suffering  endured  is 
not  for  itself,  but  for  the  end  to  be  gained. 

For  instance,  no  one  was  more  strict  with  herself 
than  St.  Catherine  of  Siena,  yet  she  writes  to  her 
sister  Damietta: — “Penance,  to  be  sure,  must  be 
used  as  a  tool,  in  due  times  and  places,  as  need 
may  be.  If  the  flesh  being  too  strong  kicks 
against  the  spirit,  penance  takes  the  rod  of  disci¬ 
pline  and  places  burdens  enough  on  the  flesh,  that 
it  may  be  more  subdued.  But  if  the  body  is  weak, 
fallen  into  illness,  the  rule  of  discretion  does  not 
approve  of  such  a  method.  Nay,  not  only  should 
fasting  be  abandoned  but  flesh  be  eaten ;  if  once 
a  day  is  not  enough,  then  four  times.  If  one  can¬ 
not  stand  up,  let  him  stay  on  his  bed;  if  he  cannot 
kneel,  let  him  sit  or  lie  down,  as  he  needs.  This 
discretion  demands.  Therefore,  it  insists  that 


24  What  is  Mysticism? 

penance  be  treated  as  a  means  and  not  as  a  chief 
desire.”3 

With  keen  insight,  St.  John  of  the  Cross  says: 
“I  am  not  speaking  here  of  the  absence  of  things, 
for  absence  is  not  detachment,  if  the  desire 
remains — but  of  that  detachment  which  consists 
in  suppressing  desire  and  avoiding  pleasures.  It 
is  this  that  sets  the  soul  free,  even  though  posses¬ 
sion  may  be  still  retained.”4  A  fine  but  not 
unfruitful  discrimination. 

After  all  his  austerities  Heinrich  Suso  was 
taught  a  better  way.  He  writes  of  himself,  in  the 
third  person,  as  follows: — “At  length  after  the 
Servitor  had  led  from  his  eighteenth  to  his  fortieth 
year  a  life  of  exercises  according  to  the  outer  man 
and  when  his  whole  frame  was  now  so  worn  and 
wasted  that  nothing  remained  for  him  except  to 
die  or  leave  off  these  exercises,  he  left  them  off; 
and  God  showed  him  that  all  this  austerity  and 
all  these  practises  were  nothing  more  than  a  good 
beginning  and  a  breaking  through  his  uncrushed, 
natural  man  and  he  saw  that  he  must  press  on  still 

3  St.  Catherine  of  Siena:  Letters,  p.  148. 

4  St.  John  of  the  Cross :  The  Ascent  of  Mount  Carmel,  Book 
I,  Chapter  III,  4. 


What  is  Mysticism?  25 

further  in  quite  another  way,  if  he  wished  to 
reach  perfection.”0 

The  sensible  Englishman  Walter  Hilton,  in  his 
Ladder  of  Perfection,  tells  us:  “that  those  cor¬ 
poral  customs  which  men  use  in  their  beginning, 
are  good,  but  they  are  but  means  and  ways  to  lead 
a  soul  forward  to  perfection.”5 6 

But  St.  Catherine  was  right  in  warning  of  the 
dangers  of  unmitigated  austerities.  The  weak¬ 
ened  body  revenges  itself  on  the  mind  and 
then  come  visions  and  trances  and  hallucina¬ 
tions,  some  of  them  very  beautiful  and  some 
not;  some  very  helpful  and  enlightening  and 
some  quite  the  reverse.  These  are  only  by¬ 
products  of  Mysticism  and  have  brought  upon  it 
much  adverse  criticism,  being  confounded  with  its 
essence.  But  these  extravangances  are  not  Mysti¬ 
cism  however  often  they  may  come  with  it.  Their 
presence  or  absence  neither  makes  nor  mars  the 
true  Mystic.  “For  I  tell  thee  truly,”  says  the 
author  of  The  Cloud  of  Unknowing,  with  his 

5  Life  of  the  Blessed  Henry  Suso,  p.  64. 

6  Hilton:  The  Scale  of  Perfection,  p.  179. 


2  6 


What  is  Mysticism? 


sturdy  common-sense,  “that  the  Devil  hath  his 
contemplatives  as  God  hath  his.”7 

These  visions  and  trances  are  to  be  known  by 
their  fruits  and  the  true  Mystic  knows  how  to 
judge  them,  if  not  always  as  keenly  as  Santa 
Teresa,  yet  generally  with  success.  Santa  Teresa, 
who  had  a  delightful  sense  of  humor,  and  an  even 
more  trenchant  tongue,  says,  speaking  of  and  to 
her  nuns: — “The  more  they  lose  self-control  the 
more  do  their  feelings  get  possession  of  them, 
because  the  frame  becomes  more  feeble.  They 
fancy  this  is  a  trance  and  call  it  one,  but  I  call  it 
nonsense  j  it  does  nothing  but  waste  their  time  and 
injure  their  health.”  And  again,  on  the  same  sub¬ 
ject,  she  says:  “There  are  people,  some  of  whom 
I  have  known,  whose  minds  and  imaginations  are 
so  active  as  to  fancy  they  see  whatever  they  think 
about,  which  is  very  dangerous.”8 

Similar  passages  may  be  found  in  many  other 
mystical  writings.  It  shows  that  the  writers  were 
alive  to  the  fact  that  the  mystical  longing  is  strong¬ 
est  in  emotional  natures,  in  those  sensitive  souls 

7  The  Cloud  of  Unknowing,  p.  216. 

8  Santa  Teresa:  The  Interior  Castle,  p.  88. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


27 


who  feel  everything  more  keenly  than  do  more 
stolid  people.  And  so  for  them,  their  austerities, 
their  fastings  and  lonely  vigils  act  more  quickly 
and  sometimes  more  disastrously.  It  is  the 
neurotic  temperament,  so  closely  and  so  often 
allied  with  genius,  that  we  perceive  in  many, 
though  not  in  all,  Mystics. 

VII. 

FINDING  GOD  WITHIN 

These  trances  are  also  connected  psychologically 
with  the  third  step  in  the  Mystic  Way,  (counting 
Longing  as  the  first  and  then  Repentance).  This 
emerges  here,  although  it  is  really  a  constant  pro¬ 
cess,  a  daily  exercise  of  the  Mystics.  It  is  called 
by  them  Contemplation,  the  attempt  to  concen¬ 
trate  their  soul  upon  God.  It  is  all  in  line  with 
that  intense  initial  and  growing  desire  we  have 
been  harping  on.  Knowing,  as  we  have  seen,  that 
God  and  they  belong  together  and  that  God  may 
be  found  within,  in  that  part  of  their  nature  which 
most  resembles  God,  they  sink  into  that  inmost 
self  in  silent  contemplation,  concentrate  all  their 


28 


What  is  Mysticism ? 

powers  within  and  there  wait  for  God  to  reveal 
Himself.  By  this  process  and  at  that  place, 
they  get  what  our  second  definition  calls  for: — 
“Direct  and  intimate  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
Presence.” 

It  is  here  that  we  come  upon  the  very  essence 
of  Mysticism,  that  which  makes  it  different  from 
the  other  expressions  of  Religion  we  have  already 
considered.  Its  description  runs  like  a  golden  cord 
through  all  their  writings. 

Meister  Eckart,  the  great  German  philosopher- 
mystic  voices  it  clearly  when  he  says:  “The  union 
of  the  soul  with  God  is  far  more  inward  than  that 
of  the  soul  and  body,”  and  again,  “The  true 
union  between  God  and  the  soul  takes  place  in  the 
little  spark  which  is  called  the  spirit  of  the  soul.”1 

And  these  words  from  William  Law,  the 
English  mystic  are  clear  and  forcible:  “For  this 
turning  to  the  Light  and  Spirit  of  God  within  thee 
is  thine  only  true  turning  unto  God,  there  is  no 
other  way  of  finding  Him  but  in  that  place  where 
He  dwelleth  in  thee.  For  though  God  be  every- 

ilnge:  Light,  Life  and  Love,  p.  5. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


29 


where  present,  yet  He  is  only  present  to  thee  in 
the  deepest  and  most  central  part  of  thy  soul. 
Thy  natural  sense  cannot  possess  God,  or  unite 
thee  to  Him;  nay,  thine  inward  faculties  of  under¬ 
standing,  will  and  memory,  can  only  reach  after 
God,  but  cannot  be  the  place  of  His  habitation  in 
thee.  But  there  is  a  root,  a  depth  within,  from 
whence  all  these  faculties  come  forth  as  lines  from 
a  centre,  or  as  branches  from  the  body  of  a  tree. 
This  depth  is  called  the  centre,  the  fund,  or 
bottom  of  the  soul.  This  depth  is  the  unity,  the 
eternity,  I  had  almost  said,  the  infinity,  of  thy 
soul,  for  it  is  so  infinite  that  nothing  can  satisfy  it 
or  give  it  any  rest  but  the  Infinity  of  God.”2 

And  to  quote  again  from  Mother  Julian  of 
Norwich,  hear  these  words: — “God  is  nearer  to  us 
than  our  own  souls,  for  he  is  ground  in  whom  our 
soul  standeth  and  he  is  mean  that  keepeth  the 
substance  and  sense-nature  together,  so  that  they 
shall  never  dispart.  For  our  soul  sitteth  in  God 
in  very  rest  and  our  soul  standeth  in  God  in  very 
strength  and  our  soul  is  kindly  [naturally]  rooted 


2  William  Law:  The  Spirit  of  Prayer. 


30 


What  is  Mysticism ? 

in  God  in  endless  love  and,  therefore,  if  we  will 
have  knowledge  of  our  soul  and  communing  and 
dalliance  therewith,  it  behoveth  to  seek  unto  our 
Lord  God,  in  Whom  it  is  enclosed.”3 

Repentance  and  abstinence  have  been  only 
means  and  preparations  for  this  constant  Recol¬ 
lection  or  Contemplation,  this  sinking  into  the 
inmost  self.  If  they  are  at  all  fitted  by  these 
exercises,  it  is  here  they  are  rewarded  and  actually 
come  into  communion  with  the  Father  of  Spirits 
and  can  speak  with  Him  and  what  is  more  import¬ 
ant  still,  hear  Him  speak. 

It  is  the  cultivation  of  this  Art,  the  development 
of  this  inner  form  of  communication  which  con¬ 
stitutes  these  people  Mystics,  whether  asceticism 
precedes  it  or  ecstasy  accompanies  it,  or  not. 

And  when  we  analyze  the  process,  we  find  it  is 
only  Prayer,  but  prayer  at  its  highest  and  best — 
the  entering  in  to  the  closet  and  shutting  the  door 
— the  praying  in  secret  and  without  ceasing, 
something  which  transcends  petition  and  even 
praise  and  which  is  best  described  by  the  words, 
Attention,  Concentration,  Silence,  Receptivity. 


3  Mother  Julian :  Revelations  of  Divine  Love,  p.  135. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


3i 


All  Mystics  spend  much  time  in  this  exercise, 
because  by  it  they  find  they  draw  nearer  to  God 
than  by  any  other  means.  And  the  more  they  use 
this  faculty,  call  it  by  whatever  name  you  please, 
the  more  acute  and  sensitive  it  becomes.  So  does 
continual  practise  give  keener  observation  to  the 
artist’s  eye  and  nimbler  touch  to  the  pianist’s 
finger.  It  is  in  this  inmost  studio  that  the 
Mystic  strives  for  perfection  in  his  Art. 

They  are  not  concerned  to  study  its  science,  or 
explain  its  laws.  They  give  no  psychological 
explanation  of  their  method.  They  are  all  simple- 
minded  pragmatists.  As  Professor  Royce  says: 
“He  gets  his  reality,  not  by  thinking  but  by  con¬ 
sulting  the  data  of  experience.  He  is  not  stupid. 
And  he  is  trying  very  skilfully  to  be  a  pure 
empiricist.  Indeed,  I  should  maintain  that  the 
Mystics  are  the  only  thorough-going  empiricists 
in  the  history  of  philosophy.”4 

They  know  only  that  doing  what  they  do,  the 
result  they  aim  at  follows.  Their  way,  faithfully 
followed,  does  lead,  not  only  toward,  but  to  God 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  that  is  all  they  want. 

4  Josiah  Royce:  The  World  and  the  Individual,  Vol.  I,  p.  81. 


32 


What  is  Mysticism? 


VIII. 

TRYING  TO  EXPLAIN 

But  to  many  of  us  who  stand  outside  and  study 
Mysticism  critically,  even  if  sympathetically,  it  is 
of  interest  to  ask  some  questions  here.  Because 
only  today  do  the  researches  of  modern  psychol¬ 
ogy  promise  some  sort  of  an  answer.  Not  yet  can 
anything  positive  be  assured  us.  Some  day  our 
natural  curiosity  will  be  satisfied  and  we  shall 
know  the  laws  of  our  spiritual  nature,  just  as  we 
are  discovering  more  and  more  of  the  laws  of 
physical  nature.  We  might  almost  say  that  man’s 
progress  in  knowledge  has  been  steadily  from  the 
distant  to  the  near,  from  the  outward  to  the 
inward.  His  earliest  science  was  astronomy,  the 
telescope  came  before  the  microscope.  So  in 
religion  the  outlook  was  first  to  gods  afar  off. 

Men  worshipped  the  planets  and  set  up  idols  in 
temples.  The  idea  of  God’s  transcendence  came 
before  that  of  his  immanence.  And  today  our 
theology  is  becoming,  like  the  Mystics,  psychologi¬ 
cal.  Our  personal  religion  is  developing  an  inti- 


What  is  Mysticism? 


33 


mate,  unliturgical,  contemplative  side,  which  is 
proving,  pragmatically,  a  very  efficient  help  in 
realizing  God’s  presence,  a  greater  help  than  a 
noisy  and  elaborate  ritual.  And  the  tendency 
today  is  to  ask  “Why?”  The  Mystics  do  not  tell 
us  anywhere  their  complete  answer  to  this 
question.  They  give  us  some  hints,  however,  like 
these: — 

“Now  the  created  soul  of  man  hath  also  two 
eyes.  The  one  is  the  power  of  seeing  into  eter¬ 
nity,  the  other  of  seeing  into  time  and  the  crea¬ 
tures,  of  perceiving  how  they  differ  from  each 
other,  as  aforesaid,  of  giving  life  and  needful 
things  to  the  body,  and  ordering  and  governing  it 
for  the  best.  But  these  two  eyes  of  the  soul  of 
man  cannot  both  perform  their  work  at  once;  but 
if  the  soul  shall  see  with  the  right  eye  into  eter¬ 
nity,  then  the  left  eye  must  close  itself  and  refrain 
from  working,  and  be  as  though  it  were  dead. 
For  if  the  left  eye  be  fufilling  its  office  as  to  out¬ 
ward  things;  that  is,  holding  converse  with  time 
and  the  creatures;  then  must  the  right  eye  be 
hindered  in  its  working;  that  is,  in  its  contempla¬ 
tion.  Therefore,  whosoever  will  have  the  one 


34  What  is  Mysticism? 

must  let  the  other  go;  for  ‘no  man  can  serve  two 
masters.’  m 

Jacob  Boehme  says  even  more  clearly  in  his 
instructions  to  the  young  mystic:  “When  both  thy 
intellect  and  will  are  quiet  and  passive  to  the 
expressions  of  the  eternal  Word  and  Spirit  and 
when  thy  soul  is  winged  up  above  that  which  is 
temporal,  the  outward  senses  and  the  imagination 
being  locked  up  by  holy  abstraction,  then  the 
eternal  Hearing,  Seeing,  and  Speaking  will  be 
revealed  in  thee.  Blessed  art  thou,  therefore,  if 
thou  canst  stand  still  from  self-thinking  and  self- 
willing,  and  canst  stop  the  whirl  of  thy  imagina¬ 
tion  and  senses.”2 

Molinos  says  the  same:  “Mystical  Knowledge 
proceeds  not  from  Wit  but  from  Experience;  it 
is  not  invented  but  proved;  not  read  but  received; 
and  is,  therefore,  most  secure  and  efficacious,  of 
great  help  and  plentiful  in  fruit.  It  enters  not 
into  the  soul  by  the  ears,  nor  by  the  continual 
reading  of  books,  but  by  the  abundant  infusion  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  Grace  with  most  delight- 

1  “Theologia  Germanica,”  Winkworth,  p.  20. 

2  Jacob  Boehme:  Three  Dialogues  of  the  Supersensual  Life, 
p.  14. 


What  is  Mysticism?  35 

ful  intimacy,  is  communicated  to  the  meek  and 
lowly.”3 

It  will  not  be  long  before  the  researches  of 
modern  psychology  will  explain  these  vague  hints. 
Already  it  has  thrown  much  light  through  the 
studies  of  Starbuck  and  James  and  Coe  and  others 
upon  the  phenomena  of  Conversion  and  the  dif¬ 
ferent  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience.  And 
the  subject  of  Prayer  has  been  studied  psychologi¬ 
cally  by  Pratt,  and  Streeter  and  Strong.4 

Soon  these  aspects  of  the  religious  life  will  be 
taken  up  into  the  larger  and  more  inclusive  subject 
of  Mysticism  and  both  they  and  their  inter-rela¬ 
tion  be  better  understood.  It  is  not  necessary,  nor 
our  purpose  here  to  enter  into  the  Why  of 
Mysticism.  We  are  studying  it  only  as  a  fact  of 
the  religious  life.  But  adding  to  the  hints  of  the 
Mystics  themselves,  it  may  be  well  to  put  here, 
as  pointing  the  way  to  a  solution,  these  words 
from  more  modern  authorities: — 

3Molinos:  The  Spiritual  Guide,  p.  50. 

4  Starbuck :  The  Psychology  of  Religion. 

James:  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience. 

Coe :  The  Spiritual  Life. 

Pratt:  The  Religious  Consciousness. 

Streeter  et  al. :  Concerning  Prayer. 

Strong:  The  Psychology  of  Prayer. 


36  What  is  Mysticism ? 

“Beyond  or  underneath  the  usual  course  of  the 
Christian  Life  there  is  in  Mysticism  the  use  and 
development  of  a  faculty  which  works  best  when 
both  mind  and  will  are  in  abeyance  and  which 
seems  to  have  the  power  of  receiving  intimations 
directly  from  God.”5 

No  one  has  spoken  more  clearly  on  this  debat¬ 
able  subject  than  Professor  William  James,  who 
says:  “Disregarding  the  over-beliefs  and  confining 
ourselves  to  what  is  common  and  generic,  we  have 
in  the  fact  that  the  conscious  person  is  continuous 
with  a  wider  self  through  which  saving  experi¬ 
ences  come,  a  positive  content  of  religious  experi¬ 
ence,  which  it  seems  to  me  is  literally  and  objec¬ 
tively  true,  as  far  as  it  goes.”6 

Many  quotations  could  be  given  from  modern 
writers  regarding  the  religious  use  and  value  of 
this  so-called  Subconscious  Self,  but  the  subject  is 
too  intricate  to  be  entered  into  here.  Only  these 
words  from  Evelyn  Underhill  in  her  important 
and  exhaustive  work  called  “Mysticism”  may  well 
be  considered: — 


5  Addison:  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Mysticism,  p.  97. 

6  James:  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  515. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


37 


“Neither  Conation  nor  Cognition — action  nor 
thought — as  performed  by  this  surface  mind,  con¬ 
cerned  as  it  is  with  natural  existence  and  dominated 
by  spatial  conceptions  is  able  to  set  up  any  rela¬ 
tions  with  the  Absolute  or  Transcendental  World. 
Such  action  and  thought  deal  wholly  with  material 
supplied  directly  or  indirectly  by  the  world  of 
sense.  The  testimony  of  the  Mystics,  however, 
and  of  all  persons  possessing  ‘an  instinct  for  the 
Absolute/  points  to  the  existence  of  a  farther 
faculty  in  man;  an  intuitive  power  which  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  diurnal  life  tend  to  keep  ‘below  the 
threshold’  of  his  consciousness  and  which  thus 
becomes  one  of  the  factors  of  his  ‘subliminal  life.’ 
This  latent  faculty  is  the  primary  agent  of  Mysti¬ 
cism  and  lives  a  ‘substantial’  life  in  touch  with  the 
real  or  transcendental  world.”' 

IX. 

THE  HEIGHTS  AND  DEPTHS 

A  few  more  words  are  necessary  before  we 
leave  this  central  point  in  the  Mystic  Way.  We 


7  Underhill :  Mysticism,  p.  80. 


38 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


have  called  it  Prayer  at  its  highest  and  best.  We 
can  give  it  no  higher  name.  It  is  the  retirement 
into  one’s  self,  the  shutting  out  of  the  world’s 
interests,  the  cessation  of  the  mind’s  restless  think¬ 
ing,  its  doubts  and  fears  j  the  silencing  of  even  the 
soul’s  constant  loquacity ;  the  distinct  expectation 
of  finding  God  within  and  hearing  God  speak,  if 
only  we  can  be  empty  and  silent  enough  to  give 
Him  a  chance ;  the  perfect  repose  of  the  soul, 
what  an  old  English  writer  has  called  “our  fiduci¬ 
ary  recumbency,”  trusting  the  promises  of  God, 
that  he  who  seeks  finds,  he  who  asks  receives  and 
that  God  is  ready  to  meet  us  within .  This  is 
Mysticism  and  this  is  Prayer.  Anyone  who  can 
succeed  in  reaching  that  state  (for  it  is  more  a 
state  than  an  act)  removes  the  last  barrier,  pierces 
the  last  veil,  may  find  his  soul  irradiated  with  the 
Vision  of  God,  experience  a  sense  of  his  presence, 
may  almost  reach  to  his  goal  of  union  with  God 
and  is  lifted  thereby  into  a  joy  which  is  inex¬ 
pressible. 

It  is  hard,  however,  for  the  soul  to  remain  on 
the  heights,  there  are  alternations  of  elation  and 
depression.  The  Way  is  neither  short  nor  easy. 


39 


What  is  Mysticism ? 

Like  all  good  things,  this  greatest  end  of  all,  takes 
time  and  labour  and  patience  to  attain.  We  find 
these  hills  and  valleys  in  our  own  lives.  And  many 
of  the  Mystics  have  had  periods  of  great  depres¬ 
sion,  sometimes  long-continued  and  unrelieved.  It 
is  so  dreadful  they  call  it  “The  Dark  Night  of  the 
Soul.”  They  lose  the  sense  of  God’s  presence. 
They  are  oppressed  by  the  fear  that  they  are 
unforgiven.  The  old  burden  of  sin  returns. 
There  is  a  sense  of  hopeless  alienation.  They 
cannot  find  God  anywhere.  Here  again  the 
Mystic  misses  God  much  more  than  we  do,  because 
he  wants  Him  so  much  more.  So  his  pain,  when 
he  feels  himself  alone  is  much  greater  than  ours. 
Some  sunnier  natures,  like  St.  Francis  and  Mother 
Julian  seem  to  be  spared  this  dark  experience  but 
few  escape  it.  Heinrich  Suso  and  Mme.  Guyon 
seem  to  have  suffered  most.  In  his  life  (Chapter 
XXIII)  Suso  tells  us  what  he  went  through. 
Three  interior  sufferings, — impious  imaginations 
against  the  faith,  inordinate  sadness  and  the 
thought  that  it  would  never  be  well  with  his  soul 
hereafter.  But  he  closes  the  chapter  thus:  “After 
this  terrible  suffering  had  lasted  about  ten  years, 


40  What  is  Mysticism ? 

all  which  time  he  never  looked  upon  himself  in 
any  other  light  than  as  one  damned,  he  went  to 
the  holy  Master  Eckart  and  made  known  to  him 
his  suffering.  The  holy  man  delivered  him  from 
it  and  thus  set  him  free  from  the  hell  in  which  he 
had  so  long  dwelt.”1 

So  sooner  or  later  this  stage  is  passed  and  they 
come  out  of  the  dark  tunnel  into  the  broad  light 
of  day  and  then  their  joy  is  unbounded.  The 
whole  world  is  irradiated.  They  sing  and  laugh 
for  joy.  This  goal  to  which  they  have  pressed 
led  on  by  “The  Vision  splendid,”  proves  more 
glorious  than  they  had  dared  to  hope.  At  times, 
even  in  this  life,  they  are  permitted  “to  see  the 
King  in  His  beauty,”  and  like  St.  Paul  when  he 
was  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,  they  see  and 
hear  things  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  them  to 
utter.  Sometimes  they  try  to  tell  us,  but  they 
stammer  and  are  forced  to  use  similes  and  sym¬ 
bols  that  to  us  seem  forced  and  extravagant. 

Here  again,  to  quote  would  be  superfluous,  the 
visions  of  God  are  so  numerous.  Only  let  Suso 
tell  us  of  one — “It  came  to  pass  once,  after  the 

1  Life  of  the  Blessed  Henry  Suso,  p.  79. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


4i 


time  of  his  suffering  was  over,  that  early  one 
morning  he  was  surrounded  in  a  vision  by  the 
heavenly  spirits.  Whereupon  he  sought  one  of 
the  bright  princes  of  heaven  to  show  him  the 
manner  of  God’s  secret  dwelling  in  his  soul.  The 
Angel  answered  thus,  ‘Cast  then,  a  joyous  glance 
into  thyself  and  see  how  God  plays  his  play  of 
love  with  thy  loving  soul.’  He  looked  immedi¬ 
ately  and  saw  that  his  body  over  his  heart  was 
clear  as  crystal  and  that  in  the  center  of  his  heart 
was  sitting  tranquilly  in  lovely  form,  the  Eternal 
Wisdom,  beside  whom  there  sat,  full  of  heavenly 
longing,  the  Servitor’s  soul,  which  leaning  lov¬ 
ingly  towards  God  and  encircled  by  God’s  arms 
and  pressed  close  to  his  Divine  Heart  lay  there 
entranced  and  drowned  in  love  in  the  arms  of  the 
beloved  God.”2 


X. 


CAN  WE  REACH  THE  HEIGHT? 

Must  we  part  company  here  with  the  Mystics  as 
they  reach  their  goal?  We  who  have  felt  the 


2  Life  of  the  Blessed  Henry  Suso,  p.  21. 


42 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


longing,  have  tried  their  hard  path  of  renuncia¬ 
tion,  who  have  meditated  in  silence  and  have 
waited  for  God  to  speak  to  us,  must  we  be  for¬ 
ever  put  off  and  look  at  the  Mystics  as  people  far 
above  us  and  apart  from  us?  I  think  not.  We 
are  blind  to  our  privileges.  Even  today  and 
among  ordinary  men  and  women  the  beatific  vision 
has  been  revealed.  The  modern  writers  on 
religion  tell  us  of  many  instances,  especially  does 
William  James  in  his  Varieties  of  Religious 
Experience.  He  tells  of  Lowell  in  Lowell’s  own 
words:  aAs  I  was  speaking  the  whole  system  rose 
up  before  me  like  a  vague  destiny,  looming  from 
the  Abyss.  I  never  before  so  clearly  felt  the 
spirit  of  God  in  me  and  around  me.  The  whole 
room  seemed  to  be  full  of  God.  The  air  seemed 
to  waver  to  and  fro  with  the  presence  of  Some¬ 
thing,  I  knew  not  what.  I  spoke  with  the  calmness 
and  clearness  of  a  prophet.  I  cannot  tell  you 
what  this  revelation  was.  I  have  not  yet  studied  it 
enough.  But  I  shall  perfect  it  one  day  and  then 
you  shall  hear  it  and  acknowledge  its  grandeur.”1 

Other  poets,  like  Wordsworth  and  Tennyson 

1  Letters  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  I,  p.  75. 


What  is  Mysticism ?  43 

have  had  the  same  experience.  Wordsworth  is 
speaking  sober  truth  when  he  says: 

“In  such  access  of  mind,  in  such  high  hour 
Of  visitation  from  the  living  God, 

Thought  was  not;  in  enjoyment  it  expired. 

No  thanks  he  breathed,  he  proffered  no  request; 
Rapt  into  still  communion  that  transcends 
The  imperfect  offices  of  prayer  and  praise, 

His  mind  was  a  thanksgiving  to  the  Power 
That  made  him;  it  was  blessedness  and  love.”2 

“May  there  not  be”  as  Dr.  Ruckham  says, 
“minor  as  well  as  major  ecstasies,  in  which  the 
soul  receives  not  all  the  raptures  of  seraphic  saint¬ 
liness,  but  enough  of  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  to 
waft  it  for  a  brief  moment  out  upon  the  ocean  of 
the  Infinite  where  it  is  caught  away  from  itself 

into  communion  with  the  Eternal?”3 

But  however  incomprehensible  may  be  the  joys 

of  a  Mystic  to  the  ordinary  Christian,  it  must  be 
plain  from  what  has  been  said,  that  the  way  to 
them  is  a  way  open  to  us  all.  It  is  the  common 
road.  There  is  nothing  vague  or  unreal  about  it. 
If  it  has  mystery,  it  is  only  because  it  reaches 


2  Wordsworth:  The  Excursion. 

3Buckham:  Mysticism  and  Modern  Life,  p.  53. 


44  What  is  Mysticism? 

farther  toward  Infinity,  toward  the  Being  of  God, 
the  Source  of  our  being.  If  we  may  not  see  to 
the  bottom  of  the  well,  it  is  because  it  is  deep  and 
not  because  it  is  muddy.  It  is  true  that  the  intel¬ 
lect  is  balked  by  its  simplicity.  It  deals  so  little 
with  syllogisms.  It  uses  a  different  faculty  and 
has  sometimes  a  little  scorn  for  the  Reason.  Its 
knowledge  comes  by  feeling,  intuitively.  Truth 
bears  witness  to  itself  and  is  its  own  authority.  It 
is  ready  to  reason  upon  the  truth  it  feels  but  does 
not  look  to  Reason  for  proof.  It  is  not  afraid  of 
Reason  but  makes  it  the  servant  and  helper  of 
Faith.  “That  which  makes  us  certain  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  of  all  other  doctrines 
peculiar  to  Christianity,  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  not 
rational  demonstration,  nor  reliance  on  the  infalli¬ 
bility  of  the  Scriptures,  or  of  the  Church,  but  on 
that  immediate  consciousness  which  results  from 
personal  experience. 5,4 

XI. 

THE  MYSTICS  ARE  PRACTICAL  PEOPLE 

The  Mystics  are  commonly  supposed  to  be 
unpractical  and  useless  dreamers,  selfishly  separ- 

4Steenstra:  The  Being  of  God  as  Unity  and  Trinity,  p.  165. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


45 


ating  themselves  from  the  world  and  of  no  use  to 
society.  It  is  one  of  the  misunderstandings  easily 
removed.  Any  one  who  will  study  their  lives  and 
words  will  find  that  while  some,  but  only  a  few, 
are  of  that  despised  type,  most  of  them  have  been 
helpers  of  their  world  and  time.  It  is  not  fair 
to  take  the  lonely  searchers  for  God  in  cell  or 
hermitage,  St.  Antony  in  the  desert  or  St.  Simeon 
Stylites  on  his  column,  selfishly  seeking  their  own 
salvation,  and  make  them  the  norm  of  the  Mystic 

spirit.  The  true  Mystic  has  always  loved  his 
brethren  and  felt  that  it  was  for  their  sake  as  well 

as  for  his  own  that  he  sanctified  himself.  The 
greatest  of  them,  when  they  have  drawn  near  to 
God  by  contemplation  and  have  been  rewarded 
by  ecstasy,  have  come  back  from  these  states 
inspired  with  ardent  zeal  to  help  their  fellows 
and  with  heightened  moral  enthusiasm.  They  are 
keenly  touched  by  the  evils  in  the  world  and  are 
bent  on  removing  them.  They  count  labour  as 
prayer  and  are  ready  for  strenuous  and  heroic 
exertion.  Many  of  them  have  been  social 
workers,  as  we  would  call  them  today ;  others 
have  been  politicians,  some  even  soldiers.  St. 


4-6  What  is  Mysticism ? 

Francis  of  Assisi  was  one  of  the  most  potent  influ¬ 
ences  in  the  early  Middle  Ages,  upon  Art  and 
Feudalism  and  Charity.  Eckhart  was  the  great¬ 
est  teacher  of  his  day;  Joan  of  Arc  and  General 
Gordon  were  quite  successful  as  soldiers  and  lead¬ 
ers  of  men.  Santa  Teresa  spent  her  life  in  re¬ 
organizing  the  discalced  Carmelites;  St.  Catherine 
of  Siena  was  the  most  statesman-like  person  in 
distracted  Italy  and  made  Popes  do  her  bidding. 

It  is  sufficient,  to  avoid  making  a  long  list,  to 
advise  the  reading  of  the  biographies  of  Mystics. 
The  reader  who  now  thinks  them  unpractical 
dreamers  will  be  astonished  to  find  them  influenc¬ 
ing  the  politics  of  State  and  Church,  instituting 
great  moral  reforms,  becoming  missionaries  and 
evangelists  and  crusaders.  Florence  Nightingale 
was  a  Mystic. 

It  would  take  too  long  to  tell  how  they  prac¬ 
tised  what  they  preached.  But  what  they 
preached,  at  any  rate,  was  like  this.  It  is  not  only 
the  English  Mystics  who  are  always  practical, 
because  English,  as  when  Richard  Rolle  says: — 
“He  is  ever  praying  who  is  doing  good,”  and 
Walter  Hilton,  who  tells  his  anchoresses  how  to 


47 


What  is  Mysticism ? 

behave  when  they  are  interrupted  at  prayer: — 
“If  thou  be  wise  thou  shalt  not  leave  God  but  thou 
shalt  find  Him  and  have  Him  and  see  Him  in  thy 
neighbor  as  well  as  in  prayer,  only  in  another 
manner.” 

In  the  same  strain  and  in  almost  the  same 
words,  the  German  Mystics  teach:  “If  I  were  not 
a  priest,”  says  Eckart,  “but  were  living  as  a  lay¬ 
man,  I  should  take  it  as  a  great  favour  that  I  knew 
how  to  make  shoes,  and  should  try  to  make  them 
better  than  any  one  else  and  would  gladly  earn 
my  bread  by  the  labour  of  my  hands.”  And  still 
more  positively  he  says: — “Sloth  often  makes  men 
eager  to  get  free  from  work  and  set  to  contem¬ 
plation,  but  no  virtue  is  to  be  trusted  until  it  has 
been  put  into  practice.”  Again  Ruysbroek,  the 
great  Flemish  mystic  writes  thus: — “Interior  con¬ 
solation  is  of  an  inferior  order  to  the  act  of  love 
which  renders  service  to  the  poor.  Were  you 
rapt  in  ecstasy  like  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul  or  whom¬ 
soever  you  will  and  heard  that  some  poor  person 
was  in  want  of  a  hot  drink  or  other  assistance,  I 
should  advise  you  to  awake  for  a  moment  from 
your  ecstasy  to  go  to  prepare  the  food.  Leave 


48 


What  is  Mysticism? 


God  for  God  3  find  Him,  serve  Him  in  His  mem¬ 
bers,  you  will  lose  nothing  by  the  exchange.”1 

And  again  from  Spain,  we  hear  the  great  organ¬ 
izer  Santa  Teresa  telling  her  nuns: — 

“Our  Lord  asks  but  two  things  of  us:  love  for 
Him  and  for  our  neighbor;  this  is  what  we  must 
strive  to  obtain.  Let  us  try  to  do  His  will  per¬ 
fectly;  then  we  shall  be  united  to  Him  . 

I  think  the  most  certain  sign  that  we  keep  these 
two  commandments  is  that  we  have  a  genuine  love 
for  others.  We  cannot  know  whether  we  love 
God,  although  there  may  be  strong  reasons  for 
thinking  so,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  about 
whether  we  love  our  neighbor  or  no.”2 

XII. 

NOT  LOST  BUT  FOUND  IN  GOD 

Another  misconception  which  should  be  re¬ 
moved  is  the  accusation  that  Mysticism  is  pantheis¬ 
tic;  that  it  merges  and  submerges  God  in  his  world 
and  by  making  Immanence  supreme,  does  away 
with  man’s  personality  and  even  with  God’s.  It 

1Ruysbroek:  Reflections  from  the  Mirror  of  a  Mystic,  p.  54. 

2  Santa  Teresa:  The  Interior  Castle,  p.  117. 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


49 


is  an  easy  accusation  and  perhaps  a  just  one  in  the 
case  of  certain  men  who  have  tried  to  philosophize 
their  deep  experience  of  union  with  God.  Their 
language  is  not  always  careful,  nor  their  reasoning 
clear.  The  subject  is  too  deep  for  them  and  they 
flounder  when  they  try  to  express  what  they  feel. 
But  this  fault,  as  in  the  case  of  the  recluse,  is  true 
only  of  a  few.  While  some  express  themselves 
extravagantly  as  Mme.  Guyon,  in  her  enthusiasm 
and  ignorance  of  philosophical  thought: — “And 
as  the  torrent,  when  it  enters  the  sea,  loses  its  own 
being  in  such  a  way  that  it  retains  nothing  of  it  and 
takes  that  of  the  sea,  or  rather  is  taken  out  of  itself 
to  be  lost  in  the  sea,  so  the  soul  loses  the  human 
in  order  that  it  may  lose  itself  in  the  divine,  which 
becomes  its  being  and  its  subsistence,  not  essen¬ 
tially,  but  mystically.”1 

And  even  Eckart,  the  scholar  and  philosopher 
says: — “God  is  nearer  to  me  than  I  am  to  my¬ 
self.  He  is  just  as  near  to  wood  and  stone  but 
they  do  not  know  it,”  which  is  no  more  startling 
than  one  of  the  uncanonical  sayings  attributed  to 
Christ,  “Raise  the  stone  and  there  thou  shall  find 

1  Mme.  Guyon:  Spiritual  Torrents,  p.  194. 


50 


What  is  Mysticism ? 


me;  cleave  the  wood  and  there  am  I.”  Other 
Mystics,  like  Ruysbroek  and  Boehme  carefully 
guard  against  anything  really  pantheistic,  in  such 
words  as  these:  “To  enjoy  God  without  inter¬ 
mediary,  this  is  what  the  spirit  longs  for,  natur¬ 
ally  and  supernaturally  with  a  supreme  desire. 
But  even  if  the  divine  union  be  effected  without 
medium  we  must  understand  that  God  and  the 
creature  can  never  be  confounded.  Union  can 
never  become  confusion.  The  distinction  remains 
forever  inviolable.”2 

The  explanation  of  their  difficulty,  if  any  ex¬ 
planation  is  possible,  is  given  by  Boehme  in  this 
simile. 

“I  give  you  an  earthly  similitude  of  this.  Be¬ 
hold  a  bright  flame,  possibly  of  iron,  which  of  it¬ 
self  is  dark  and  black.  The  fire  so  penetrateth 
and  shineth  through  the  iron  that  it  giveth  light. 
Now  the  iron  does  not  cease  to  he;  it  is  iron  still; 
and  the  source  (or  property)  of  the  fire  retaineth 
its  own  propriety:  it  doth  not  take  the  iron  into 
it,  but  it  penetrateth  (and  shineth)  through  the 
iron;  and  it  is  iron  then  as  well  as  before,  fire  in 


2  Ruysbroek :  Reflections  from  the  Mirror  of  a  Mystic,  p.  24. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


5i 


itself,  and  so  also  is  the  source  (or  property)  of  the 
fire.  In  such  a  manner  is  the  soul  set  in  the  Deity ; 
the  Deity  penetrateth  through  the  soul  and  dwell- 
eth  in  the  soul,  yet  the  soul  doth  not  comprehend 
the  Deity,  but  the  Deity  comprehendeth  the  soul, 
but  doth  not  alter  it  (from  being  a  soul),  but  only 
giveth  it  the  divine  source  (or  property)  of  the 
majesty.”3 

XIII. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  asserted  with  confidence 
that  the  Mystic,  when  stripped  of  all  the  non- 
essentials  of  his  mysticism,  of  all  the  trappings  and 
prejudices  which  have  so  long  confused  us,  is  not 
a  man  endowed  with  a  peculiar  spiritual  faculty 
denied  to  most  of  us,  but  is  a  man  like  ourselves, 
with  a  yearning  for  God,  like  ours,  only  more  in¬ 
tense,  pursuing  his  end,  an  end  open  to  us,  by  the 
patient  use  of  means  within  the  reach  of  any  of 
us. 

For  Mysticism  is  not  a  mere  opinion,  not  a  phil¬ 
osophy,  not  even  a  religion,  it  is  only  a  practical 
way  of  life,  a  development  of  a  faculty  we  all 

3Boehme:  The  Three-Fold  Life  of  Man,  p.  190. 


52  What  is  Mysticism? 

possess,  an  Art  to  be  practised,  an  End  to  be 
attained. 


THE  END. 

A  MESSAGE  FROM  A  MODERN  MYSTIC 

“Many  of  the  noblest  souls  have  always  felt, 
what  they  could  not  entirely  describe  even  to 
themselves,  such  a  mysterious  union  between  their 
personal  life  and  the  deep  spirit  which  works  in 
all  things,  that  they  have  known  that  the  unit  of 
their  existence  and  their  action  was  not  the  sim¬ 
ple  personality  which  in  the  tightest  and  most  lit¬ 
eral  sense  they  called  themselves,  but  was  some¬ 
thing  more  and  greater.  Just  as  the  Body  is 
not  the  Man,  but  the  Body  with  the  Soul  flowing 
through  it  and  filling  it,  so — such  has  been  the 
thought  of  many  of  the  greatest  natures,  the 
thought  of  which  we  have  all  caught  sight  in  some 
moment  of  our  lives — I  am  not  merely  this  com¬ 
pact  and  single  group  of  powers,  pervaded  with 
this  consciousness  of  personality  3  I  am  all  this, 
kept  in  communion  with  the  heart  of  all  things, 
fed  by  the  spirit  of  the  universal  life. 


What  is  Mysticism? 


53 


Translate  this  floating,  mystical  persuasion  into 
the  terms  of  Religion,  and  it  becomes  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  God  and  man  are  so  near  together,  so 
belong  to  one  another,  that  not  a  man  by  him¬ 
self,  but  a  man  and  God,  is  the  true  unit  of  being 
and  power.  The  human  will  in  such  sympathetic 
submission  to  the  divine  will  that  the  divine  will 
may  flow  into  it  and  fill  it,  yet  never  destroying 
its  individuality  $  I  so  working  under  God,  so 
working  with  God,  that  when  the  result  stands 
forth  I  dare  not  claim  it  for  my  personal  achieve¬ 
ment  ;  my  thought  filled  with  the  thought  of  One 
who  I  know  is  different  from  me  while  He  is 
unspeakably  close  to  me,  as  the  western  sky  tonight 
will  be  filled  with  sunset.  Are  not  these  con¬ 
sciousnesses  of  which  all  souls  that  have  ever  been 
truly  religious  have  sometimes  been  aware?  Tt 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us’  wrote 
the  Apostles  to  the  brethren  at  Antioch.  T  live, 
yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me,5  wrote  Paul  to 
the  Galatians.  Who  has  not  felt  it?  It  was  God 
and  I,  making  one  unit  of  power,  that  conquered 
my  great  temptation,  that  did  my  hard  work,  that 
solved  my  problem,  that  bore  my  disappointment. 


54  What  is  Mysticism? 

Let  me  not  say  that  it  was  God  alone.  That 
makes  me  a  machine,  and  responsibility  floats  off 
like  a  cloud.  Let  me  not  say  that  it  was  I  alone. 
That  robs  the  work  of  depth  and  breadth  and 
height,  and  limits  it  to  what  I  know  of  my  poor 
faculty.  No!  It  was  this  active  unity  of  God  and 
me,  His  nature  filling  my  nature  with  its  power 
through  my  submissive  will.  It  is  not  something 
unnatural.  It  is  most  natural.  I  do  not  truly 
realize  myself  until  I  become  joined  with,  filled 
with  Him. 

This  is  the  religious  thought  of  character.  I 
could  not  preach  to  you  of  character,  of  human 
selfhood  and  its  great  function,  as  I  have  preached 
to  you  today,  and  not  carry  it  as  high  and  deep  as 
this.  Men  call  it  mystical  and  trancendental ; 
they  say  it  all  sounds  dreamlike  to  the  majority 
of  men.  I  confess  that  the  objection  weighs  with 
me  less  and  less.  A  thousand  things  seem  dream¬ 
like  to  the  great  majority  of  men  which  by  and 
by  are  going  to  be  known  as  the  great  moving 
powers  of  the  world.”1 

1  Phillips  Brooks:  Baccalaureate  Sermon  1884. 

(quoted  in  Allen:  Life  of  Phillips  Brooks,  II,  p.  543  ff.) 


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